My invention is an improvement in the art, heretofore attempted in a variety of ways of making an exact duplicate of a person's facial appearance. Obviously, artists have sculptured duplicates of the facial expression of their models since the beginning of recorded history. However, such sculptured duplicates require a tremendous amount of talent, skill, and patience. It is certainly an art which can not be practiced by the novice, and if a person desires to have a three-dimensional reproduction of his facial appearance and expression created, it would, in all likelihood, be an expensive undertaking to hire an artist to create such a work of art. With these factors in mind, several attempts have been made to invent a method to mechanically produce a three dimensional duplicate of the facial expression of a model. For a variety of reasons, these efforts have proven to be unsuccessful or deficient in one way or another. The present invention attempts to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art. The present invention involves a uniquely simple method of creating the duplicate, a method that is easy to use, simple to implement, safe to both the model and the person implementing the method through the steps of the method as disclosed herein, an inexpensive process, and one which will avoid distortion of the mold and thereby help to insure that one will produce an exact three dimensional duplicate of the facial appearance and expression of the model.
The prior art has made a number of attempts at this process, and the present invention is an improvement over these prior efforts. The prior art that is most closely related to the present invention is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 803,004 to issued on Oct. 31, 1905, and the British Patent No. 287,044 issued on Aug. 16, 1928, to Camnasio. Both Mayer and Camnasio disclose the concept of making a cast of the face by the application of a layer of moldable or malleable material onto the face of the model and then applying a second coating of plaster of paris or the like to reinforce the mask. Camnasio discloses the application of pieces of gauze to the liquified mold material to provide reinforcement and support for the negative, to facilitate it detachment and to keep it in shape (see column 2, lines 55-59). A particular drawback of the inventions as disclosed by these two prior disclosures is that once the pliable material is painted onto the face of the subject, and thereafter a plaster of paris type of material or some other stabling material is placed over the pliable material, it is very difficult to create a proper adherence between the pliable material and the plaster of paris or other stabilizing material.
Experience has shown that when the processes of the teachings of Mayer and Camnasio are employed, there is a likelihood the pliable material will separate from the stabilizing material and a great tendency for the mold to distort as it is removed from the model's face. Because of a lack of proper adherence between the pliable material and the plaster of paris material that is used to support the mold, as the mold is removed from the model's face, the pliable material tends to stick to the model's face and pull away from the plaster of paris material. When this happens, the mold itself is distorted so that when the duplicate is formed, it is not an exact reproduction of the model's face.
The present invention is a simple improvement in the known processes, one that is neither obvious or apparent from the prior art. The present invention interjects an intermediate step in the heretofore known processes by applying bonding patches to the pliable material after the pliable material is placed on the model's face and while the pliable material is still in a semi-liquid state. These bonding patches adhere to the pliable material and the pliable material will in fact penetrate the fibers of the bonding patch and as the pliable material dries, the bonding patch will become a part of the pliable material. At the next step of the process, when the plaster of paris is applied over the pliable material, the plaster of paris will impregnate the fibers of the bonding patch and become fixedly adhered to the bonding patch. Thus, a direct adherence between the plaster of paris and the pliable material is created, a unique and significant improvement in the processes heretofore known from the prior art. By creating this direct bond between the pliable material and the plaster of paris, one using this inventions can remove the mold from the face of the model without the pliable material becoming distorted because of the tendency of the pliable material to stick to the face of the model and pull away from the support part of the mold created by the plaster of paris.